Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
There were more 'small wars' during decolonization and the Cold War than there are now. The world has gotten progressively more peaceful since the end of the Cold War. Compare South and Central America, southern Africa, and eastern/southeast Asia then and now. The only places that grew significantly more violent were really central Asia, southern Europe, and central Africa, and only the DRC civil war compares with the death tolls inflicted in southeast Asia.
Define "is." There were essentially no wars in South America during the Cold War, internal dissent yes -- but no wars. Those in Central America were quite small. As you note, decolonization led to several wars and there was a Cold War influence but essentially, during the 1960-1990 period there were few wars. Not none, just few -- and most of those were fomented by the USSR at the fracture lines of British and French drawn boundaries on maps (where they are still occurring, giving the old retired guys in Ekaterineburg something to chuckle about when they watch CNN or the Beeb today).

I didn't waste pixels elaborating on the fact that we communicate more globally and rapidly now than then but that too impacts the perceptions.

Most people in their 30s have seen or heard of more war in the last fifteen years than they saw or heard of in the previous fifteen or twenty -- that was my, I thought self evident, point.

Obviously not.